AFI Palace Ploiesti, the first and only modern shopping mall developed in the city center of Ploiesti, officially opened its doors today, following an investment of over €50 million and only 16 months after construction started. The shopping mall offers to Ploiesti and its surrounding residents over 100 national and international brands, along with more than 7,000 m² of entertainment.
The project, developed by AFI Europe, offers a total gross leasable area (GLA) of 33,000 m² spreading over two retail floors. The ground floor is dedicated to services and day to day errands, while the first floor is dedicated to fashion. Entertainment activities are spread over the two floors of the mall.
The mall, designed by M. Tzur architects, has two main entrances which are connected by one main corridor, thus providing the visitors with an easy and familiar orientation. This, coupled with a huge skylight and wide corridors with no view blocking columns, creates the right and welcoming atmosphere for the visitors.
“When we took the decision to develop AFI Palace Ploiesti we first studied the needs and wills of the residents of Ploiesti. We found out that there is a great demand for the best national and international fashion brands to be present in the city center of Ploiesti. With this in mind and in order to create a complete and appealing shopping experience, we have developed in the city center this modern designed shopping mall which offers its visitors the correct mix of fashion, services, entertainment and food outlets,” said David Hay, CEO AFI Europe Romania.
The shopping mall is anchored by a modern food anchor, CORA hypermarket, occupying a 13,000 m² store.
AFI Palace Ploiesti is leased close to 100% with fashion brands such as Koton, H&M, Reserved, Musette, TimeOut, Collins, Nike, Aldo, Otter, Lee Cooper, Il Passo, Jolidon, Massini, Motivi, Jack and Jones, Braiconf, Kenvelo, Cropp Town, Leonardo, House, Carpisa, and many others. In addition, the shoppers enjoy many other retailers’ offerings such as Intersport, Flanco electronics, EMag, Smyk, Douglas, Sabon, the library Carturesti, DM, Animax, Kitchen Shop, all cellular operators and many others.
The food court offers a wide range of international options including KFC, McDonald’s, Brioche Doree, El-Bacha Lebanese Restaurant, Italian Pizza Dominium and Pizza Bonita, Thang Long Vietnamese food, Spartan Greek restaurant, Food of Persia and others.
On the entertainment and leisure side, AFI Europe implemented the same concept implemented by it in AFI Palace Cotroceni shopping mall in Bucharest which meant providing the mall visitors with a wide variety of entertainment and leisure options to choose from. These options spread over many parts of the mall, includes a six-screen Cinema City complex, A 500 m² indoor Ice–Rink Arena which will be operational all year long, MaxBet Casino, indoor children playground, skating and rollerblade Arena, XD Theater (6D Virtual Theatre), Play station arena and a large and varied selection of Electronic games.
The mall’s visitors enjoy 1,000 parking spaces, out of which 300 are located underground.
The project was financed by Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) which provided a financing loan of over €30 million. The construction of the project was successfully executed by the general contractor Danya Cebus Rom.
Source: Golin Harris
